Comparison of the efficiencies of two TR-FRET methods to detect in vitro natural and synthesized inhibitors of the Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway

Abstract:

Numerous types of cancer operate through the deregulation of the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway. It is therefore of importance to design and synthesize inhibitors of this pathway. Consequently, we have developed several tests to measure in vitro the effect of inhibitors on the activity of the complete cascade Raf-1/MEK/ERK and also on the activities of Raf-1, MEK, and ERK individually. We present here the results obtained with two time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) methods by comparison with a classical radioactivity method and experimental data found in literature. The capability of a series of optimized assays to detect different types of inhibitors is evaluated and discussed.

Keywords::

• Raf/MEK/ERK cascade
• inhibitors of Raf-1
• MEK
• and ERK
• PEBP/RKIP
• phosphocellulose filter binding assay
• time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer